CPI outlet samples from the CE: a new life for the Point-of-Purchase Survey

In 2016, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) began testing the collection of consumer shopping location data in the Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CE), aiming to replace the Telephone Point-of-Purchase Survey (TPOPS) as the Consumer Price Index’s primary establishment sampling frame for the Commodities and Services Pricing Survey. This transition presented several data production opportunities for BLS and eliminated the increasing operating expenses associated with random-digit-dialing surveys. It also presented and addressed several obstacles stemming from the CE’s smaller sample size, shorter recall periods, and limits on additional respondent burden. For example, collecting data in the CE made it unfeasible to gather the same amount of detail about an establishment’s physical location as that gathered in TPOPS. For this reason, CE data on where consumers shop were supplemented with establishment location information from the BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages.